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Henry Ames Blood
| birth_place = Temple, New Hampshire | death_date = December | death_place = Washington, D.C. | occupation = Civil servant, poet, playwright, historian, critic | nationality = United States | period = 1860–1900 | movement = | notableworks = The History of Temple, N.H., Selected Poems | influences = | influenced = }} Henry Ames Blood (June 7, 1836 - December 30, 1900) was an American poet, playwright, civil servant, and historian. He is chiefly remembered for The History of Temple, N.H. Life Youth and education Blood was born in Temple, New Hampshire, the son of Lavinia (Ames) and Ephraim Whiting Blood. Due to his father's death on December 29, 1837, his childhood years were spent with his mother's family in New Ipswich, New Hampshire. When his mother remarried on February 9, 1842, he acquired a stepfather, Samphson Fletcher. Blood was educated at the New Ipswich Academy and then at Dartmouth College, from which he graduated in 1857. Career He was a school teacher for a few years in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Paris, Tennessee. About 1861 he moved to Washington, D.C., where he was employed for most of his adult life, to accept a clerkship in the Internal Revenue Department. After a short service there he was transferred to the Department of State, in the employ of which he long remained. He also worked for the Bureau of the Census and the Department of the Treasury. As a young government worker in Washington, D.C., Blood was in the city at the time of Abraham Lincoln's assassination. His letters to his mother on the aftermath of the assassination and the trial of the conspirators were discovered in 2005 in one of the homes of Robert Todd Lincoln, and reveal an interesting impression of contemporary public sentiment concerning the events. Among the periodicals and newspapers in which his verse appeared were Boston Advertiser, The Century Illustrated Magazine, Christian Union, Dollar Monthly Magazine, Flag of Our Union, Harper's Weekly, The Independent, The Knickerbocker Monthly, The Magazine of Poetry and Literary Review, New England Magazine, New York Observer, New York Post, New York Tribune, Scribner's Magazine, The Home Journal, and The Youth's Companion. He was married twice: on October 15, 1862, to Mary Jeannie Marshall, daughter of Orlando and Eliza Cunningham (Mansur) Marshall of New Ipswich, New Hampshire; and on October 19, 1880, to Mary E. Miller, daughter of Col. Ephraim F. and Catherine (Seymour) Miller. From his 2nd marriage he had a son, Royal Henry Blood, born July 29, 1884, who died young in 1892. Blood died at his home in Washington and was buried with his son in New Ipswich, New Hampshire. His widow married again after his death, on February 11, 1902, to Col. Royal E. Whitman. Writing Blood's History of Temple, N.H. (1860) is still considered an important resource for the history of that region. His poetry was highly regarded and anthologized in his day, when he was considered in the top rank of American poets, but has been dismissed as overly-sentimental by later critics. Blood's dramatic works appear never to have made much of an impression, either in his own lifetime or since. At least one of them (How Much I Loved Thee! (1884)) was published under the pseudonym of Raymond Eshobel, which is an anagram of the author's name. Recognition Upon her own death in 1905 his widow bequeathed to the Public Library of New Ipswich $10,000 to establish The Henry Ames Blood and Royal Henry Blood Memorial Fund for the maintenance of the library, and another $10,000 to the town of Temple, New Hampshire, $8,000 for the erection of a schoolhouse, to be known as the "Henry Ames Blood and Mary Miller Blood School," and $2,000 for the care and maintenance of the town common. These bequests were to be paid after the death of Col. Whitman. Writing Publications Poetry * Selected Poems. Washington, DC. Neale, 1901. Drama * Lord Timothy Dexter, or, The greatest man in the East: A comedy in five acts. Washington, DC: 1874. * The Spanish Mission, or, The member from Nevada. Washington, DC: 1874. * The Emigrant. 1874. * How Much I Loved Thee! A drama. 1884. * The Return of Ulysses. Non-fiction * The History of Temple, N. H.. Boston: G.C. Reed & Avery, 1860. **Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1995. * "Germany" (article) (1872) * Proceedings in the Internal Revenue Office commemorative of the late Judge Israel Dille (with Israel Dille). Washington, DC: privately published, 1874. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Henry Ames Blood, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, July 9, 2013. Poems Dates are of first publication if known; an "a." before a date indicates the poem appeared in an anthology or collection of that date (original publication was likely earlier); an asterisk indicates the piece was collected in Blood's Selected Poems. * "At the Door" (ca. 1860) * "The Chimney-nook"* (The Home Journal, May 5, 1860) * "Pro Mortuis"* (New York Post, Jul. 15, 1862) * "Sighs in the South"* (New York Weekly Tribune, Oct. 13, 1862) * "May Flowers"* (New York Weekly Tribune, Apr. 26, 1863) * "The Sale of the Picture" (Dollar Monthly Magazine, Jul. 1863) * "The Last War of the Dryads"* (Knickerbocker Magazine, Jul. 1863) * "Fantasie"* (Knickerbocker Magazine, [Jan. 1864) * "The Masque in Fantasie"* (Knickerbocker Magazine, Feb. 1864) * "The Astrologers" (Flag of Our Union, Jan. 7, 1865) * "The Death of the Old Year"* (The Independent, Dec. 28, 1871) * "The Grand Orchestra"* (The Independent, Jan. 11, 1872) * "The Departure of the Gods from Greece" (The Independent, Mar. 28, 1872) * "The Song of the Savoyards"* (Scribner's Monthly, Jun. 1875) * "Jeannette"* (Harper's Weekly, May 19, 1879) * "The Invisible Piper"* (a.1882) * "Yearnings"* (a.1882) * "The Two Enchantments"* (The Century Magazine, Jan. 1883) * "The Rock in the Sea"* (The Century Magazine, Sep. 1883) * "Webster"* (New York Observer, Jun. 17, 1886) * "At the Grave: In Memory of A.M."* (The Century Magazine, Feb. 1887) * "Comrades"* (The Century Magazine, Dec. 1887) * "Ad Astra"* (The Century Magazine, Dec. 1888) * "Old Friends"* (Boston Advertiser, Nov. 15, 1889) * "The Fighting Parson"* (The Century Magazine, May 1890) * "Margie"* (Youth's Companion, May 21, 1891) * "The Drummer"* (The Century Magazine, Jul. 1891) * "Shakespeare"* (New York Tribune, date unknown (a.1891)) * "The Byles Girls" (The New England Magazine, Aug. 1897) * "Great Expectations of the House of Dock" (a.1897) * "The Last Visitor"* (a.1895) * "The Fairy Boat"* (a.1901) * "A Midnight Chorus"* (a.1901) * "The Serene Message"* (The Century Magazine, date unknown (a.1901)) * "Saint Goethe's Night"* (a.1901) * "Thoreau: In Memoriam"* (a.1901) Except where noted, information on individual poems courtesy Wikipedia. Henry Ames Blood, Wikipedia, March 21, 2013, Wikimedia Foundation. Web, July 9, 2013. See also * List of U.S. poets References * "Henry Ames Blood Dead" (obituary). ''The Washington Post, Jan. 1, 1901, p. 7. * "Bequests to Many Relatives; Wills of Louisa E. Hill, Henry A. Blood, and T. A. Hopkins Filed." '' The Washington Post'', Jan. 29, 1901, p. 7. * "Social and Personal." The Washington Post, Feb. 12, 1902, p. 7. * "$20,000 in Bequests; Mrs. Whitman Leaves Money to Institutions." The Washington Post, Mar. 10, 1906, p. 2. * Bisbee, Marvin Davis. Dartmouth College Necrology, 1898-99. Hanover, N.H., Dartmouth Press, 1899, p. 26. erroneous death date * Chapin, Bela, ed. The Poets of New Hampshire. Claremont, N.H., C.H. Adams, 1883, p. 559. * Chapman, George T. Sketches of the Alumni of Dartmouth College. Cambridge, Riverside Press, 1867, p. 425. * Emerson, Jason. "Aftermath of an Assassination: Recently Discovered Letters from the Days After Lincoln's Murder," American History 41, no. 2 (June 2006): pp. 24–30, 74. * The Library Journal, v. 31 (Jan.-Dec., 1906). New York, 1906, p. 246. * The Magazine of Poetry and Literary Review, v. 7. Buffalo, The Peter Paul Book Company, 1895, p. 69. * Sladen, Douglas, ed. Younger American Poets, 1830-1890. London, Griffith, Farran, Okeden & Welsh, 1891, p. 66. Notes External links ;Poems *Henry Ames Blood in An American Anthology, 1787-1900: "Comrades," "Shakespeare" '' Category:1836 births Category:1900 deaths Category:People from Hillsborough County, New Hampshire Category:American poets Category:American dramatists and playwrights Category:American historians Category:Writers from New Hampshire Category:19th-century poets Category:English-language poets Category:Poets